Legalize marijuana right now, immediately

This article is in support of the legalization of marijuana, right now, immediately. For too long now, we have danced circles around the marijuana issue, culminating the absurdist craze known as “medical marijuana” that is sweeping the country. I say end this medical marijuana craze and straight up legalize the herb.

Marijuana laws are a 1930s relic of American racism

Ever heard of Herbert Anslinger? He was a 1930s FBI agent with an enormous stick up his ass, who made it a personal mission to outlaw marijuana. He started out as a Prohibition officer (we saw how well that one worked). Once Prohibition ended, he moved into the Narcotics Commission, which is funny. You see, marijuana isn’t actually a narcotic at all, which would suggest that we had an FBI agent who was working outside of his lawful authority. Fortunately this kind of misdeed is rare.

Anyways, Anslinger ran a pretty simple string of racist anti-marijuana videos and “news” articles to build support for his cause. Since marijuana use was rare in the 1930s, in any event, there weren’t many people inclined to oppose him. The following are quotes from some of Anslinger’s work (see his wikipedia article):

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”

“Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy”[10][11]

“Two Negros took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.”[11][12]

Harry Anslinger knew America couldn't resist good racist propaganda

To be fair, it was probably only a matter of time before marijuana was banned in any event, given trends both at the state level and internationally. Still, Anslinger must be given the lion’s share of the credit for it happening when it did.

Marijuana does not destroy the productive impulse or turn people into socialists

Once marijuana was banned in the 1930s, it was mainly smoked by minorities for the next 3 decades as it slowly faded from the view of middle America. Unfortunately, when it did come back, it became the drug of choice for an incoherent mass of socialist morons. Once this occurred, there was no turning back from the damage done to the marijuana “brand”.

Smoking marijuana will not turn you into this

Many authorities in the 1960s and 1970s fretted over marijuana’s seeming tendency to turn people into unpatriotic pacifists. This is completely false. Many of the first white people to smoke marijuana did so because of their position on the margins of society, not the other way around. From the age of 15-25, I saw a number of people go from non-smokers to smokers of marijuana. In this time period, I’ve never seen marijuana drastically change a person’s personality. If they had their shit together before they smoked marijuana, they had their shit together after they started smoking it.

The only reason it was different in the 1960s, was because most people who started smoking never had their shit together in the first place. Remember, only 10% of the Baby Boomer generation had anything to do with the “hippie” movement. The “hippie movement” was really of little consequence in American society, and it is a serious and common historical error to think otherwise.

Marijuana use is extremely widespread in American society

A lot of surveys show that 40% or so of Americans have tried marijuana. I personally have a hard time believing the number is this low. In my own personal experience, I believe 80% of the people I know have tried marijuana. It is really only a very few who haven’t.

Marijuana smokers are everywhere in America. I once asked a marijuana dealer what kind of people he sold marijuana to. His answer was to say “Any kind of person you can think of.” He said he sold marijuana to lawyers. He sold a lot of marijuana to suburban soccer mom types. He said he sold marijuana to the cops. For the last 10 years, the United States has had a President who admitted smoking marijuana on a regular basis at some point in their life.

Finally, the military asks thousands of recruits each year if they have ever tried marijuana, and each year thousands of recruits lie and say “no”. I spoke with a couple people in the military about this once and they laugh and say it is the biggest sham they have ever witnessed (the lying to get in, I’m not implying that active servicemen smoke in large numbers).

Somehow, all of these people are out there smoking marijuana all the time, yet they still manage to perform their jobs and keep our society moving in the right direction. Perhaps it is because marijuana has only negligible effects on cognitive ability (unless smoked in massive quantities), and fewer negative physical effects than a hangover. In fact, nobody who isn’t ignorant can argue that marijuana is worse for you than alcohol, yet you can turn on your TV right now and watch beer commercials all day.

This sounds less like enlightened policy, and more like a game of who has the most $$$$$$ and power.

Medical marijuana is a joke

Since many in society still cling to the notion that recreational marijuana use should be illegal, many people are now advocating medical marijuana. This is funny, since usually a new drug has to go through a 10 year FDA approvals process, after which it can only be sold in pharmacies. With marijuana, however, certain states have made an exception. Here we have a situation where a drug is “approved” for medical use, without any hard scientific data, and only sold at special dispensaries. This sounds more like a line of bullshit than a legitimate medical cure for anything.

Final Thoughts

If 50% of the population supports an obvious trojan-horse scheme like “medical marijuana”, why are they not supporting plain Jane legalized marijuana? What kind of person supports one and not the other? This whole thing makes absolutely no sense to me.